Johannesburg: The South African Reserve Bank has appointed Kuben Naidoo, a fourth generation descendant of one of Mahatma Gandhi's most trusted lieutenants, as Registrar of Banks.
The appointment is a transitional move until the promulgation of new laws next year that will establish a new statutory body to regulate banks and insurers.
Mr Naidoo has been serving as one of three Deputy Governors of the Reserve Bank after becoming an advisor to then governor Gill Marcus in 2013.
He also serves as a member of the Bank's monetary policy committee which regularly sets interest rates in the country's interest rates.
Besides two years in the service of the UK Treasury, he has also worked at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Mr Naidoo is steeped in a family tradition of struggle politics, started by his grandfather Thambi Naidoo, who joined Gandhi in his Satyagraha movement in South Africa during the Indian leader's tenure in the country at the turn of the last century.
When Gandhi returned to India in 1914, Transvaal Indian Congress founder member Thambi Naidoo volunteered his four sons to go with him. One died in India and three returned to settle in South Africa to play a role in the liberation struggle for three more generations.
One of those sons who became a leading member of the Communist Party of South Africa was Naransamy 'Roy' Naidoo, in whose home Nelson Mandela was a frequent visitor.
Roy Naidoo's son Prema, now a Councillor in the City of Johannesburg, is Kuben's father.
When Prema was detained under oppressive apartheid laws in 1991, 10-year-old Kuben was at the forefront of protest action as one of the youngest opponents of apartheid.
His continued activism saw him detained as a high school student, forcing him to write his final year matriculation exams in prison.
Mr Naidoo holds a Bachelor of Science degree as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Management from Wits University, and an MBA from the University of Birmingham.
